on the spot, being reproductions under the litho-photographic process, executed by Messrs. GEORGE WATERSTON and SON of Hanover Street, Edinburgh. I trust that the authenticity of these sketches, made from nature in localities most of which are entirely new to us in illustration, will compensate in some degree for occasional roughness and want of pictorial effect. The four coloured plates are faithful copies of my original water-colour drawings.
I desire to thank my travelling companions, Captains Biddulph and Trotter, for kind assistance in the subject matter of this book. Captain Biddulph, besides furnishing that which I have acknowledged in the text, helped me in the account of the form of Budhism now obtaining in Tibet, to which Captain Molloy, British Joint Commissioner at Leh, also obligingly contributed. The Map and all the notes of elevation above sealevel are by Captain Trotter, and in my account of our journey to Chadir Kul on the Tian Shan plateau I have borrowed from his letter published in the proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of 15th June 1874.
Fergan, the latest Russian territorial acquisition in Central Asia, extends the frontier of that Power down towards the scene of our Pamir exploration; and, influenced as the adjoining small States must necessarily be by their strong neighbour, the opportunity will doubtlessly soon be given for a complete examination of the interesting regions near the head waters of the Oxus which remain yet unexplored.
2 ROYAL PARADE,
CHELTENHAM, 1st May 1876.